November 7, 2013

Must-Have Social Meta Tags for Twitter, Google, Facebook, & More

Social Media

The author's views are entirely their own (excluding the unlikely event of hypnosis) and may not always reflect the views of Moz.

At Moz, we strive to include social media metadata in all new pieces of content that we publish. This allows us to optimize for sharing Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Pinerest by defining exactly how titles, descriptions, images and more appear in social streams.

Think of it as conversion rate optimization for social exposure.

The implications for SEO are also significant. We know from experience and studies that the right data, including optimized images, helps content to spread, which often leads to increased links and mentions.

Knowing exactly which social meta tags to include can be confusing even to experienced webmasters. This post by Micheal King is a huge help, and Wordpress publishers who use Yoast's SEO plugin are well ahead of the game. For the rest of us, consider the different structures supported by the major social platforms:

Twitter Cards: Summaries, Images, Galleries, Apps, Video, Audio, and Products
Pinterest Rich Pins: Products, Recipes, Movies, and Articles
Google+: Articles, Blog, Book, Event, Local Business, Organization, Person, Product, and Reviews
Facebook: Articles, Photos, Audio, Video, and more

To help ease this problem, I created four social media tag templates that you can fill out, customize for your own use, and share with your team and others.

How to use these templates

Simply copy and paste the template into the text editor of your choice. Make sure to replace any orange or green text with your own data, and customize, eliminate or add any tags you find necessary.

The first three of these templates are optimized using a typical "article" markup and data, ideal for blog posts and most written content. The final template contains markup for product pages.For other post types, such as book or recipes, refer to documentation linked at the end of this post for reference on what to customize.

When you are done, don't forget to test and apply for approval.

1. The Minimal Template

This slimmed back version runs lean and fast. It contains a bare minimum of data for optimized sharing across Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Pinterest.

Title tags and meta descriptions are included even though they aren't technically social media meta tags. This is because they can be used by Google+ and other social media platforms, and it is best practice to include them on every page you publish.

Minimum Social Media Tag Template: Article

Page Title. Maximum length 60-70 characters</title>
<meta name="description" content="Page description. No longer than 155 characters." />

<meta name="twitter:card" value="summary">

2: The Standard Template

The standard template represents a more robust implementation of social tags and is meant to work across all platforms. In addition to all of the features of the mimimal template above, the standard template includes the following:

The basic Twitter Summary card
Twitter thumbnail image
Facebook Page Insights

Standard Social Media Tag Template: Article

Page Title. Maximum length 60-70 characters</title>

<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary">
<meta name="twitter:site" content="@publisher_handle">
<meta name="twitter:title" content="Page Title">
<meta name="twitter:description" content="Page description less than 200 characters">
<meta name="twitter:creator" content="@author_handle">
<-- Twitter Summary card images must be at least 120x120px -->
<meta name="twitter:image" content="http://www.example.com/image.jpg">

3: The Full Monty

This is the monster! In addition to all the data contained in the standard template, the full template contains:

Google Authorship and Publisher Markup. Although this data doesn't change your content appearance in Google+, it potentially add links to your Google+ pages in search results.
Schema.org article markup
Twitter Summary card with large image
Expanded Open Graph article data

Full Social Media Tag Template: Article

<title>Page Title. Maximum length 60-70 characters</title>
<meta name="description" content="Page description. No longer than 155 characters." />

<meta itemprop="name" content="The Name or Title Here">
<meta itemprop="description" content="This is the page description">
<meta itemprop="image" content="http://www.example.com/image.jpg">

<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image">
<meta name="twitter:site" content="@publisher_handle">
<meta name="twitter:title" content="Page Title">
<meta name="twitter:description" content="Page description less than 200 characters">
<meta name="twitter:creator" content="@author_handle">

<meta name="twitter:image:src" content="http://www.example.com/image.jpg">

<meta property="og:title" content="Title Here" />
<meta property="og:type" content="article" />
<meta property="og:url" content="http://www.example.com/" />
<meta property="og:image" content="http://example.com/image.jpg" />
<meta property="og:description" content="Description Here" />
<meta property="og:site_name" content="Site Name, i.e. Moz" />
<meta property="article:published_time" content="2013-09-17T05:59:00+01:00" />
<meta property="article:modified_time" content="2013-09-16T19:08:47+01:00" />
<meta property="article:section" content="Article Section" />
<meta property="article:tag" content="Article Tag" />
<meta property="fb:admins" content="Facebook numberic ID" />

Bonus: The Product Template

For merchants, product markup is very popular, and usually easy for developers to implement in their shopping cart software. The product template differs from article markup in only a few ways:

Modified <html> tag to reflect schema.org product data
Twitter Product Card includes required data labels
Open Graph data includes price and currency data

Product Social Media Tag Template

<meta name="twitter:card" content="product">
<meta name="twitter:site" content="@publisher_handle">
<meta name="twitter:title" content="Page Title">
<meta name="twitter:description" content="Page description less than 200 characters">
<meta name="twitter:creator" content="@author_handle">
<meta name="twitter:image" content="http://www.example.com/image.jpg">
<meta name="twitter:data1" content="$3">
<meta name="twitter:label1" content="Price">
<meta name="twitter:data2" content="Black">
<meta name="twitter:label2" content="Color">

Tools for testing and approval

A. Twitter Validation Tool

https://dev.twitter.com/docs/cards/validation/validator

Before your cards show on Twitter, you must first have your domain approved. Fortunately, it's a super-easy process. After you implement your cards, simply enter your sample URL into the validation tool. After checking your markup, select the "Submit for Approval" button.

B. Facebook Debugger

https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug

You don't need prior approval for your meta information to show on Facebook, but the debugging tool they offer gives you a wealth of information about all your tags and can also analyze your Twitter tags.

C. Google Structured Data Testing Tool

http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets

Webmasters traditionally use the structured data testing tool to test authorship markup and preview how snippets will appear in search results, but you can also use see what other types of meta data Google is able to extract from each page.

D. Pinterest Rich Pins Validator

http://developers.pinterest.com/rich_pins/validator/

Like Twitter, Pinterest requires an approval process to enable Rich Pin functionality. Use the Rich Pin Validator tool to test your data markup and apply for approval at the same time.

Tips and best practices

Optimizing for images

The image you link to in your social data does not actually have to be on the page, but it should represent your content well. The image allows you to controll what people see when they share your content, so it's important to use quality images.

Every social platform has different standards for sizing. Typically, it's easier to keep it simple and choose one image size that will work for all services.

Twitter thumbnail: 120x120px
Twitter large image: 280x150px
Facebook: Standards vary, but an image at least 200x200px works best. Facebook recommends large images up to 1200x630px wide.

In short, larger images offer you the most flexibility. When in doubt, test each page using the appropriate tool below to see exactly how your images will appear in snippits.

The importance of Open Graph data

If you could choose only one type of meta data to include, your best bet is Open Graph. That's because all the platforms can use it as a fallback, including Twitter to a large degree.

Facebook page insights

The meta property "fb:admins" requires that you enter your numeric Facebook id number, and gives you access to analytics about how your website content is shared on Facebook. Read more about Page Insights, including how to set it up and discover your numeric id.

Further resources

Use these templates as a starting point, but you can customize them in millions of ways. A few valuable resources to aid your journey:

The Web Developer's SEO Cheat Sheet 2.0
18 Meta Tags Every Webpage Should Have in 2014
Twitter Card Documentation
The Open Graph Protocol
Snippet - Google+ Platform
Pinterest Rich Pins for Business
WooCommerce - Free Wordpress toolkit that adds product markup

What are your best tips for optimizing your content for sharing? Let us know in the comments below.